The
chance of a clouded atmosphere caused me much anxiety; for
Jupiter and Mercury were in conjunction with the Sun almost
at the same time as Venus. This remarkable assemblage of the
planets (as if they were desirous of beholding, in common
with ourselves, the wonders of the heavens, and of adding to
the splendour of the scene), seemed to forebode great
severity of weather. Mercury, whose conjunction with the Sun
is invariably attended with storm and tempest, was
especially to be feared. In this apprehension I coincide
with the opinion of the astrologers, because it is confirmed
by experience; but in other respects I cannot help despising
their more puerile vanities...

Having
attentively examined Venus with my instrument, I described
on a sheet of paper a circle whose diameter was nearly equal
to six inches, the narrowness of the apartment not
permitting me conveniently to use a larger size. This
however admitted of a sufficiently accurate division; nor
could the arc of a quadrant be apportioned more exactly,
even with a radius of fifty feet, which is as great an one
as any astronomer has divided; and it is in my opinion far
more convenient than a larger, for although it represents
the Sun's image less, yet it depicts if more clearly and
steadily.

...When
the time of the observation approached, I retired to my
apartment, and having closed the windows against the light,
I directed my telescope, previously adjusted to a focus,
through the aperture towards the Sun and received his rays
at right angles upon the paper already mentioned. The Sun's
image exactly filled the circle, and I watched carefully and
unceasingly for any dark body that might enter upon the disk
of light.

Although the corrected computation of Venus' motions which I
had before prepared, and on the accuracy of which I
implicitly relied, forbade me to expect anything before
three o'clock in the afternoon of the 24th; yet since,
according to the calculations of most astronomers, the
conjunction should take place sooner, by some even on the
23rd, I was unwilling to depend entirely on my own opinion
which was not sufficiently confirmed, lest by too much
self-confidence I might endanger the observation. Anxiously
intent, therefore, on the undertaking through the greater
part of the 23rd, and the whole of the 24th, I watched
carefully on the 24th from sunrise to nine o'clock, and from
a little before ten until noon, and at one in the afternoon,
being called away in the intervals by business of the
highest importance which, for these ornamental pursuits, I
could not with propriety neglect. But during all this time I
was nothing in the Sun except a small and common spot,
consisting as it were of three points at a distance from the
centre towards the left, which I noticed on the preceding
and following days. This evidently had nothing to do with
Venus. About fifteen minutes past three in the afternoon,
when I was again at liberty to continue my labours, the
clouds, as if by divine interposition, were entirely
dispersed, and I was once more invited to the grateful task
of repeating my observations. I then beheld a most agreeable
spectacle, the object of my sanguine wishes, a spot of
unusual magnitude and of a perfectly circular shape, which
had already fully entered upon the Sun's disk on the left,
so that the limbs of the Sun and Venus were precisely
coincided, forming an angle of contact. Not doubting that
this was really the shadow of the planet, I immediately
applied myself sedulously to observe it.

In the first place, with respect to the inclination, the
line of the diameter of the circle being perpendicular to
the horizon, although its place was somewhat inclined on
account of the Sun's altitude, I found that the shadow of
Venus at the aforesaid hour, namely fifteen minutes past
three, had entered the Sun's disk about 62O 30', certainly
between 60O and 65O, from the top towards the right. This
was the appearance in the dark apartment; therefore out of
doors beneath the open sky, according to the laws of optics,
the contrary would be the case, and Venus would be below the
centre of the Sun, distant 62O 30' from the lower limb, or
the nadir, as the Arabians term it. The inclination remained
to all appearance the same until sunset, when the
observation was concluded.

In the second place, the distance between the centres of
Venus and the Sun I found, by three observations, to be as
follows:

At
3.15 by the clock 14'24"

At
3.35 by the clock 13'30"

At
3.45 by the clock 13'0"

At
3.50 the apparent sunset.

The true setting being 3.45, and the apparent about five
minutes later, the difference being caused by refraction.
The clock therefore was sufficiently correct.

In the third place, I found after careful and repeated
observation, that the diameter of Venus, as her shadow was
depicted on the paper, was larger indeed than the thirtieth
part of the solar diameter, though not more so than the
sixth, or at the utmost the fifth, of such a part.
Therefore, let the diameter of the Sun be to the diameter of
Venus as 30' to 1'12". Certainly her diameter never equalled
1'30", scarcely perhaps 1'20", and this was evident as well
when the planet was near the Sun's limb, as when far distant
from it.

This observation was made in an obscure village where I have
long been in the habit of observing, about fifteen miles to
the north of Liverpool, the latitude of which I believe to
be 53O20'; although by the common maps it is stated at
54° 12', therefore the latitude of the village will be
53° 35', and the longitude of both 22O30' from the
Fortunate Islands, now called the Canaries. This is 14°
15' to the west of Uraniburg in Denmark, the longitude of
which is stated by Brahe, a native of the place, to be
36° 45' from these Islands.

This is all I could observe respecting this celebrated
conjunction, during the short time the Sun remained in the
horizon; for although Venus continued on the disk for
several hours, she was not visible to me longer than
half-an-hour, on account of his so quickly setting.
Nevertheless, all the observations which could possibly be
made in so short a time, I was enabled, by Divine
Providence, to complete so effectually that I could scarcely
have wished for a more extended period. The inclination was
the only point upon which I failed to attain the utmost
precision; for, owing to the rapid motion of the Sun, it was
difficult to observe with certainty to a single degree, and
I frankly confess, that I neither did not nor could
ascertain it. But all the rest is sufficiently accurate, and
as exact as I could desire.